# Calabash



## owaindav (Mar 7, 2010)

There've been a few people talking about calabash pipes and why they're so expensive. I was looking for a calabash and was surprised to find that they are indeed incredibly expensive.

First, lets talk about the calabash pipe. Originally it was made from a gourd. I can't remember the scientific name but it's "_something calabash_." Calabash has since become a style of pipe now made from the same woods and minerals as other pipes.

A good calabash pipe made from a gourd is becoming more rare these days. The reason is that growing a gourd that can be used for a pipe is somewhat and incredible feat!

There's a guy from the Sherlock Holmes Pipe Club in Boston has done some research on this. If you want to read about it, here's the link: Sherlock Holmes Pipe Club of Boston - Save the Calabash - by Thomas Martin If you don't want to read it, here's my summary.

Apparently he found a gourd grower here in the US and asked if he could find some gourds to make pipes from. The farmer had 20 acres of gourds growing. She'd been growing gourds for 4 years. In those 4 years she found only 4 gourds that were in any way suitable for making a pipe. Of those 4, only 1 was decent enough to not have to do a lot of retro-fitting and sweating to get it right. He made a mistake on two, (I think) and ruined them.

Apparently the shape is one of the hardest things. Farmers used mound of earth for each gourd trying to get the shape for the pipe. Eventually, a pegboard was used with some success. Tending to the drying of the gourds is also a daily time consuming effort.

So, now you can see why a calabash pipe, a real gourd calabash pipe is so expensive. The calabash pipe, I fear, is going the way of the clay pipe. Few growers and fewer pipe makers are left to support the art.

Having said all that, I was fortunate enough to pick up a calabash from fleabay a couple months ago. The guy had no idea what he was selling. He listed it as a wood pipe with a meer insert. What I recieved was a ceramic insert. I also believe that it turns out to be an actual gourd calabash! So, at $35, I think I got a heck of a deal. I'm going to get a meer insert for it and clean it up a bit before I post any pics. Just don't have time to do it right now.

Hope you've enjoyed this. Now it's time to go find some seeds and grow some pipes!


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## Reverie Forest (Mar 31, 2009)

Great info, Dave. I had no clue it was that ridiculously rare in finding a quality calabash. I figured that dang nazi off Inglorious Basterds was on to something, toting that thing about.

Give us another video once you get that pipe a puffing with the new insert. Looking forward to it.


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## shannensmall (Jun 30, 2010)

Because I like larger pipes, I've often been drawn to the Calabash.

In the beginning of the movie Inglorious B*stards, I love the farmer and the SS guy sitting down having a pipe. The farmer with his tiny "farmers" pipe and the SS guy pulls out a massive Calabash.


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## owaindav (Mar 7, 2010)

I've not seen I.B. But everyone tells me they like the calabash in it.


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## shannensmall (Jun 30, 2010)

It's worth renting, I wouldn't buy it tho.

So when do you expect we can see some pics of the monster you're packing?


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## Granger (Jul 24, 2010)

I own two Butz Choquin Gourds (They are the same "model" but are a lot different in look.)

If you look at new Calabash pipes they are now most often made of Mahogany. Much like the labor intensive nature of Perique, the complex nature of farming REAL gourds for pipes is not cost effective.

Although I read once in Pipes and Tobaccos that some Gourd pipe makers would put the gourds into forms (much like the Japanese do now with to make square watermelons and pumpkins), but this only resulted in about a 50% success rate.


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## sounds7 (Mar 25, 2009)

I do not own a Calabash but I am curious about them and their smoking qualities. I think most have a larger bowl do they not? It seems like they would have a pretty open draw as well. I have heard they smoke cool but I cannot verify that. I am curious what types of tobacco this style pipe would excell in smoking because when its all said and done, for me, its about the quality of the smoke.


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## Granger (Jul 24, 2010)

sounds7 said:


> I do not own a Calabash but I am curious about them and their smoking qualities. I think most have a larger bowl do they not? It seems like they would have a pretty open draw as well. I have heard they smoke cool but I cannot verify that. I am curious what types of tobacco this style pipe would excell in smoking because when its all said and done, for me, its about the quality of the smoke.


After the obligatory "but these are just my experiences..." statement...here is how I view a Calabash Gourd Pipe.

I own two Butz Choquin Calabash pipes. Both have large bowls and are large pipes...definitely arm chair pipes. One of my pipes has an almost 90 degree bend and resembles this photo:
http://www.marscigars.com/images/products/display/BCCalabash.jpg

The other has a more gentle bend and resembles this:
http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/pipes-cigars-tobacco_2141_244335487

The large Meerschaum bowl acts as a filter to absorb moisture. The hollow chamber below the bowl absorbs moisture and cools the smoke. Then the long distance through the mouthpiece further cools the smoke. Often when I smoke a Calabash, if I puff slow and gentle, the smoke in my mouth is cool with no heat at all. If I puff hard, which I tend to so sometimes, the smoke is just a little warm.

I have never noticed ghosting, but I am sure there are those who might have different experiences, because the insides seems if it would be porous.

I love Burley, I love Perique, I love Aromatics...heck I love tobacco! I have never put anything I enjoy into the bowl of a Calabash and found it did not smoke well, except for moist tobaccos that don't stay lit in any pipe.

My favorite tobacco in my Gourd is NOT Sugar Barrel, but Frog Morton On The Town. I love it in the gourd. It does something just right for me, and Frog is a nice tobacco to have that coooooool smoke.

Now...about Inglorious Basterds. Quinten Tarantino explains that originally the pipe was going to be part of Landa's character, but it became a prop instead. (You can see Tarantino explain it here: YouTube - Quentin Tarantino Explains the Pipe Scene in Inglorious Basterds ).

The actual pipe is a Butz Choquin. Why? Since it was decided the pipe was a prop used by Landa, he would have bought it in France and that would be the brand/type most available in France at the time of the movie.

As large has that pipe is, it is smaller than the two BCs I own, and most of those I have seen are larger. The Mahogany style that is becoming more common is smaller. In fact, the two Gourds I own don't really hang in the mouth, you need to hold them. My mahogany calabash is easily held in the mouth.


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## Herf N Turf (Dec 31, 2008)

Great thread! Back in my pipe days, the second pipe I ever bought was a Calabash. I was a huge Sherlock Holmes fan and even though this was not the pipe he smokes in the tales, I identified it with him. I happened by my local Tinder Box one day in about 1982 and saw this massive pipe in the display cabinet. I didn't know a thing about the construction and thought that a pipe that massive, must weigh a ton! The guy behind the counter quickly educated me. It was made from gourd and meershaum, with a "mother of bowlingball stem". He said that they were reported to be the coolest, driest smoking pipe of any design. It was $55 and I had to have it! 

I had discovered pipe nirvana. It weighed just slightly more than my briar and was an easy clinch. I could not get it hot. I could not get it wet. It smoked any tobacco I threw at it, like a dream. 

To this day, it's hands down, the best pipe I've ever smoked and I wish I still had it. NOTHING touches a gourd Calabash!


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## Granger (Jul 24, 2010)

If only you would tell us how you really feel about these pipes 


Herf N Turf said:


> Great thread! Back in my pipe days, the second pipe I ever bought was a Calabash. I was a huge Sherlock Holmes fan and even though this was not the pipe he smokes in the tales, I identified it with him. I happened by my local Tinder Box one day in about 1982 and saw this massive pipe in the display cabinet.  I didn't know a thing about the construction and thought that a pipe that massive, must weigh a ton! The guy behind the counter quickly educated me. It was made from gourd and meershaum, with a "mother of bowlingball stem". He said that they were reported to be the coolest, driest smoking pipe of any design. It was $55 and I had to have it!
> 
> I had discovered pipe nirvana. It weighed just slightly more than my briar and was an easy clinch. I could not get it hot. I could not get it wet. It smoked any tobacco I threw at it, like a dream.
> 
> To this day, it's hands down, the best pipe I've ever smoked and I wish I still had it. NOTHING touches a gourd Calabash!


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## Herf N Turf (Dec 31, 2008)

Granger said:


> If only you would tell us how you really feel about these pipes


Okie dokie, I really like them. That work?


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## Granger (Jul 24, 2010)

Herf N Turf said:


> Okie dokie, I really like them. That work?


You and this evasive, vague language...just tell us if you like them and they are a good smoke!:thumb:


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## Mister Moo (Sep 8, 2005)

Hmmmm.... about 10,000 smoking pipes on a cleaned up ebay search today; 61 include the word "calabash" in the description; 11 of them are made with gourds, about half of which carry porcelain bowls and half of the remainder are silver capped. That leaves a couple of decent old Pioneers, a new BC and some weird stuff. Selection ratio of 1: 2000, approx.

Descriptions on used calabash pipes are often incorrect. People call gourds wood and vice-versa. Ceramic bowls are called meerschaum and irredeemable garbage is called "vintage." Caveat emptor. Shop long, hard and carefully if you want one of these dinosaurs. I love my Pioneer, by the way (NIB for about $70 off ebay) - excellent smoker. Cool and dry - yes. Center draft hole makes for a quicker-than-you-think smoke even with the big bowl.


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## Herf N Turf (Dec 31, 2008)

Moo Rules.


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## owaindav (Mar 7, 2010)

shannensmall said:


> It's worth renting, I wouldn't buy it tho.
> 
> So when do you expect we can see some pics of the monster you're packing?


Good Grief! Get off my back! :mrgreen:

Just kidding. Seriously, don't expect it for a couple weeks. They just told us Friday that we're back on 60+ hours a week mandatory. Apparently when the Navy pays for a boat, they want it as soon as possible.


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## Granger (Jul 24, 2010)

owaindav said:


> Good Grief! Get off my back! :mrgreen:
> 
> Just kidding. Seriously, don't expect it for a couple weeks. They just told us Friday that we're back on 60+ hours a week mandatory. Apparently when the Navy pays for a boat, they want it as soon as possible.


If there is one thing the US Military WON'T stand for, it is waste!:laugh:


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## owaindav (Mar 7, 2010)

Granger said:


> If there is one thing the US Military WON'T stand for, it is waste!:laugh:


:shock: OMG!ound:

You very nearly made me break something I laughed so hard!


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## Granger (Jul 24, 2010)

owaindav said:


> :shock: OMG!ound:
> 
> You very nearly made me break something I laughed so hard!


Or should I have said "If there is one thing the US Government won't stand for...it is waste?


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

I wish I'd kept my calabash. The bowl was broken in '77 and I chucked it. I had no idea it would be the gourd that would be hard to replace.


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## drastic_quench (Sep 12, 2008)

While I wouldn't turn down a free one, and I'm sure they smoke excellently, calabashes are too unwieldy and goofy looking for me. I like reading Arthur Conan Doyle, but I've got no special attachment to the portrayal of pipes either from the stories or movies. Most of my pipes are modern Danish shapes, so I'm no billiard-only traditionalist, but the calabash is just too much. Plus, I need my pipes to travel with me and be easy to carry.


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## shannensmall (Jun 30, 2010)

Check moo out with his mad ebay searching skillz! 

Dave, I thought I told you bout that working sheet...It'll kill ya man.

Then again...gotta pay for that TAD and PAD, and lets not forget the SAD. (sword acquisition disorder)


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